Move Over, Barb, Carmen on ‘One Day at a Time’ Is Netflix’s Best Recurring Bestie

One of the most visible elements of this summer’s Stranger Thingsphenomenon was the rise of peripheral character Barb to the level of cult heroine. Why Barb? Good question! Part of it was Shannon Purser’s performance, all quiet dignity and unassuming goodness. Part of it was that Barb was styled exactly like everyone’s “omg I can’t believe I went out of the house looking like that” 9th-grade school photo and was thus welcomed to our collective bosom as if to say “it’s okay, this phase won’t last forever.” Part of it was that said stylization made Barb the perfect fodder for ironic appreciation. Part of it was that “Barb” is a funny name to say.

For whatever reason, Barb became the unofficial mascot of the Stranger Things phenomenon, despite the fact that her character was absent from episode 3 on forward. There was a backlash to Barb. Then a backlash to the backlash. Then Barb fatigue. It was a lot of Barb. So when I tell you today that Carmen (Ariela Barer) on One Day at a Time is the new Barb, that doesn’t mean that Carmen should be meme-ified out of existence, turned into a trend to be chewed up and spit out. What I mean is that Carmen is the best-friend character on a well-reviewed Netflix series who we need right now, the way we all thought we needed Barb back then. Only this time, Carmen is more than just a vessel through which we remember our dorky past. She’s a deadpan dynamo who ends up giving One Day at a Time one of its most emotional payoffs.

We first see Carmen in episode 3 as new best friend to Elena (Isabella Gomez) who comes over to work on a school project together. Carmen’s aggressively goth stylization weirds out Penelope (Justina Machado), who is kind of aggressively rude to her, calling her “Latina Twilight” and making her feel unwelcome. But you can’t make Carmen feel unwelcome with unpleasantness. Carmen eats unpleasantness for breakfast. Carmen dyes her hair a bold streak of unpleasantness and then applies it as a thick matte shade of black lipstick. Carmen is all about Penelope’s vampire-girl cracks.

So obviously, this endeared Carmen to us right away (and before long, she’s endeared herself to Penelope too). Which is why episode 5, “Strays” hits like such a gut-punch. ODAAT plays it pretty cleverly with a kind of narrative sleight of hand. Penelope and Lydia (Rita Moreno) are suspicious of Elena and Carmen’s intensely close friendship, leading the audience to think the story is going to be about their possible queerness. As it turns out, the story is that Carmen has been staying at the Alvarez’s house because her parents have been deported as illegal immigrants. She’s supposed to go stay with her brother in Texas, but she wants to stick out the school year with Elena. “Strays” is a deeply emotional episode that hits the entire Alvarez family and the viewing audience especially hard. That it’s so relevant to the politics of the day is only part of the reason. The other part is that we’ve grown to love Carmen in such a short span of time, and watching her go through this familial nightmare is heartbreaking. If you can get through the end of this episode without crying, go back to Barb, we don’t need your kind here.

Carmen doesn’t leave forever after “Strays.” The details of how she remains on the show are best for you to figure out by watching the show. But as the show’s best recurring character, her big return is an incredibly welcome moment in a season full of welcome moments. Credit to Ariela Barer for playing Carmen’s affectations for laughs without losing sight of the relatable teen girl underneath. Some of the best Carmen moments are when we get a little peek of warmth or vulnerability from beneath those bangs.

One Day at a Time deserves to be as big of a hit as Stranger Things. That’s job one. But job two is to make sure that Carmen gifs are the new Barb gifs. She deserves it.